Li Zhiyun raised his telescope and observed. He found that the Empress Temple was quite large, with more than a dozen houses and two or three courtyards. In addition to the soldiers standing guard at the entrance of the courtyard, there were also soldiers coming in and out of the main hall. At this time, I saw a group of soldiers escorting a carriage over. The carriage stopped at the gate of the yard. Two women and five children were sitting in the carriage.
The soldiers kicked the women and children out of the carriage, drove them into the courtyard gate, and took them to the entrance of the side hall. A soldier opened the temple door, pushed the women and children in, and then closed the temple door.
Li Zhiyun estimated that the main hall should be occupied by guarding soldiers, while the side halls on both sides contained robbed women and children. He observed for a while and found that there should not be too many soldiers in this temple, about twenty or so, and no more than thirty at most.
When they returned to the inn, everyone else had returned. Everyone gathered in Li Zhiyun's room and told them everything they knew. The four gates of the city are guarded by soldiers, and there are about one or two hundred guards at each gate. In addition, there are two barracks in the city, and most of the soldiers in the city live in the barracks.
After listening to everyone's stories, Li Zhiyun pondered for a moment and said: "These demons eat ten women and ten children every day, so we can't waste a moment, we must act tonight! Let's attack the Empress Temple first, one There are fewer soldiers there, and the second is very close to the south gate. Let’s first eliminate the guards in the temple, seize weapons, rescue women and children, and then attack the south gate!”
After Li Zhiyun finished speaking, no one had any objections. Li Zhiyun asked another guard to leave the city immediately, bring the new army over, and made an appointment with him to attack the south gate from both inside and outside at the fourth watch.
At night, the postmen and other guests in the inn fell asleep. The watch drum outside was beating loudly. Listening to the beat, it was clear that the third watch had just been handed in. Li Zhiyun and others quietly left the inn and walked along the street. In order to avoid encountering the enemy patrolling at night, everyone moved close to the shadows of the houses on the street.
When they arrived at the Empress Temple, they saw that the door had long been closed, and a broken old lantern hung at the door, flickering with dim light. Li Zhiyun estimated that the soldiers on guard had withdrawn to the courtyard. He winked at Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu. The two understood and immediately used Qinggong to jump onto the courtyard wall. They squatted on the wall and looked into the courtyard. Sure enough, there were two soldiers standing guard at the entrance of the main hall.
The two of them jumped gently into the yard and hid in the shadow of a big tree. The two soldiers were leaning against the wall next to the door, weapons in hand, dozing there.
Zhang Zheng bit Cai Hu's ear, and Cai Hu nodded. The two separated and surrounded each other from both sides. Zhang Zheng clung to the wall, quietly approached a soldier, stretched out his arms and clamped the soldier's head tightly, and twisted hard, and his neck was broken.
Another soldier was awakened and was about to scream when Cai Hu grabbed him by the neck. Cai Hu's hands were like iron pliers. The enemy soldiers couldn't breathe at all. After struggling for a while, they stopped moving. After taking care of the two sentries, the two opened the door to the courtyard, and the people waiting outside swarmed in.
Li Zhiyun followed everyone through the courtyard and entered the main hall. The main hall is quite spacious. Opposite is the statue of the Lady Sending Lady. There are several ever-burning lamps enshrined on the Buddhist altar in front of the statue. There were a bunch of collapsed beds against the walls on both sides, and bursts of snoring could be heard from the beds. The soldiers' armor was hung on the wall, and the weapons were placed on wooden shelves.
Without Li Zhiyun's instructions, everyone took off their swords and guns from the wooden stand, walked to the bed, and slashed and stabbed the sleeping person on the bed. Blood and flesh flew everywhere, and more than twenty soldiers saw the King of Hell in their sleep.
After eliminating the guarding soldiers, Li Zhiyun led people to the front door of the side hall, had someone cut off the door lock with a knife, pushed the door open and walked in. A guard lit a torch, and by the light of the torch, Li Zhiyun took a look and saw a large number of adults and children sitting on the dark ground. Many young children were huddled on the ground with their eyes closed, not knowing whether they were dead or alive.
Some women were awakened. They opened their eyes and looked at the intruders in horror. Li Zhiyun said loudly: "Fellow fellows, we are soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, here to save you. You are free, go home quickly!" However, he said it several times in a row, and the women seemed not to understand him. He stared at him blankly, showing no reaction at all.
Li Zhiyun walked up to a teenage woman and tried to pull her up. The woman shrunk in fear and screamed, but refused to stand up. Li Zhiyun had no choice but to give up and retreat to the door, making a gesture to invite them out.
Li Zhiyun gestured for a long time, and finally an older woman stood up timidly and walked towards the door. However, she had just taken two steps, and as if she suddenly remembered something, she quickly returned to find her child. The woman found her two children, pulled them up, held one in each hand, and walked toward the door.
When the women in the house saw the woman taking the child out, they all got up, found their children, pulled up the sleeping children, and walked out of the door holding them by the hand. In a short time, everyone in the room was gone. Li Zhiyun took a look and saw that fortunately, the children were all alive and there was not a single body left on the ground.
The women walked into the courtyard and found the temple door open. They did not rush out, but stopped one after another, stood in the yard, looked around, and chattered something. At this time, the women and children in the side hall opposite were also rescued, and a large area of darkness stood in the courtyard.
Li Zhiyun walked to the steps at the entrance of the main hall, faced everyone, and said loudly: "Fellows, you are free, go home quickly!" The woman who walked out of the hall first and was closest to Li Zhiyun cried and shouted : "Thank you, my benefactor!" After saying that, he knelt down and pulled his two children to kneel on the ground. Other women also took their children and knelt on the ground. Adults and children at the scene burst into tears.
The people brought by Li Zhiyun were all tough guys who never blinked in the face of swords and guns. At this moment, facing this group of weak and helpless women and children, they could not help but shed tears. Li Zhiyun wiped away his tears with his sleeves and said with a strong nasal voice: "Everyone, get up and go home quickly!" Under the repeated urging of Li Zhiyun and others, the women kneeling on the ground stood up one by one, holding their own hands. The child walked out the door and disappeared into the darkness.
Li Zhiyun looked up at the half-moon hanging in the night, and estimated that the fourth day would be here soon. He ordered everyone to put on the enemy's armor and weapons, and immediately march towards the south gate.
Everyone left the Empress Temple and went straight to the south gate. When they arrived at the city gate, they saw a few soldiers standing guard there. A soldier saw a group of dark figures walking in front of him. He immediately clenched his weapon vigilantly and shouted loudly: "Who are they?" Li Zhiyun had an idea and said loudly: "One of our own is here to change the guard." The soldier took advantage of the moonlight. Seeing that they were wearing armor, he relaxed his vigilance and said, "Why are you here?" After that, he put the big gun on his shoulder.
Everyone came to the city gate and used lightning speed to eliminate the few sentries. Li Zhiyun asked people to find the key on the body and opened the city gate.
The new army had arrived outside the city and was about to launch an attack. When they saw the city gate opened, they immediately rushed in and occupied the south gate.
After the new army entered the city, according to the plan, they were going to attack the military camp. There are two military camps in the city, one large and one small. Li Zhiyun asked Scarface to lead a battalion to monitor the larger military camp, while he led the other three battalions to capture the other military camp.
When we arrived in front of the military camp, we saw torches burning in front of the camp gate and several enemy soldiers standing guard. A soldier saw a large group of black shadows moving in front of him and immediately shouted. Without saying a word, the New Army soldiers walking in front took up muskets and fired. After a hail of bullets, the sentries were beaten into sieves.
The New Army soldiers shouted and rushed into the barracks and threw grenades into the room through the windows of the barracks. With the violent explosion, many enemy soldiers were killed on their beds. Some enemies ran out of the house naked and were killed by fire blunderbuss. In less than half a stick of incense, the two thousand enemies in the military camp were wiped out. After cleaning the battlefield, it was already dawn. Li Zhiyun gave the order, and the new army rushed to another military camp without stopping.
There were three thousand enemy troops stationed in this military camp. They had been awakened by the explosion in the city. They put on armor and picked up weapons, but they were unable to leave the military camp. Because the gate of the military camp was blocked by the battalion of the New Army. Furthermore, these enemy soldiers couldn't figure out what was going on outside, and they didn't dare to rush out. It was safer to stay in the military camp.
The new army completely surrounded the barracks. Li Zhiyun saw a large open space in front of the military camp, so he asked Scarface to move the artillery battalion over. As the arsenal produced another batch of red cannons, the artillery battalion was expanded from three companies to four companies, with eight cannons in each company, for a total of thirty-two cannons.
The artillery battalion divided the cannons into two columns and lined them up, with the muzzles pointed at the enemy's barracks. When I came to Huaixi this time, I had a huge baggage team accompanying the army. In addition to transporting grain and grass, it also carried sufficient ammunition.
The soldiers in the military camp poked their heads at the gate of the camp, and some soldiers stuck their heads out from the courtyard wall. They had no idea what these wooden wheeled carts lined up in a row were for.
Residents in the city were awakened by the explosion last night and thought it was thundering. Many residents opened their doors in the morning and found a strange army walking on the street in front of their doors, and some bold residents followed the army. At this time, many people gathered at the scene, and they didn't know what these wooden wheel vehicles were used for. People stood watching from a distance, pointing with their fingers, and talking about it.
Li Zhiyun asked the New Army soldiers to shout loudly, urging the enemy troops to surrender, but the soldiers shouted for a long time, but there was no response at all in the barracks. An enemy general stuck his head out from the courtyard wall and shouted: "We will not surrender. If you have the ability, just come in!"
